Fun Friday: Cool Science Videos

Fun Friday: Cool Science Videos

 

A homemade built death-ray very cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtzRAjW6KO0

 

Simple and totally cool science tricks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_f3SkxTWxc

 

And 10 more from the same dude

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYK3W9WqbGw

 

From NPR Science Friday’s site

 

A LEGO shuttle goes into space

http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10435

 

A cool lab video on lab animal biomechanics

http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10434

 

Glorious pigeon videos

http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10417

 

Gary Oldman one of the best actors of our time?

Gary Oldman one of the best actors of our time?

Recently the Oscar nominations list came out and Gary Oldman was nominated for best actor, this, came as no surprise, the surprise was that it was his first nomination.  He has been nominated for his role as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Gary Oldman is one of those actors whose name may not bring an immediate recognition but is someone whose work you absolutely know.  Here’s a picture of him in one of his most iconic roles in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula.  Most recently he has been playing Commissioner Gordon in the latest Batman series, The Dark Knight.

 

Oldman has always fascinated me, it seemed during the 1990’s that he was the bad guy in every film worth seeing.  He was iconic as Dracula, Sirius Black in the Harry Potter films, Mason Verger in Hannibal, and one of the most over the top wild-ass bad guys in The 5^th Element.  I have great admiration for his acting talent and much like the great Michael Caine, as much of a star as he is; he still seems to have retained an aura of being an ordinary guy.  He’s one of those people I would love to have a beer with sometime.

This past weekend Oldman was a guest for one of the games, not my job, on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and as always they do a quick minute or two with the star and it’s usually fairly interesting, but the back and forth with Goldman was unbelievable funny, give it a listen and if by some miracle he reads this, good luck Mr. Oldman, I hope you bring home the Oscar.  Below is a link to where you can find the clip, it’s definitely worth the time, enjoy.

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/04/146320715/actor-gary-oldman-plays-not-my-job

Fun Friday: The Poop and Paddle

Fun Friday: The Poop and Paddle

Yes for today’s post may I present a short video via NPR Science Friday on the Poop & Paddle, enjoy:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10402

The circus that is American politics

So this is where we currently find the government of the United States of America.  In ring one we have our military situation, we are fighting a war in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan and doing a little bomb dropping in Libya.  Additionally, on just about every news show they get the chance, the government slips in a little mention of Yemen which is where I believe our next military action will occur.

https://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/the-next-big-terror-threat-part-2/

In the second ring we have the budget, the budget that our brave warriors in the house and senate barely negotiated at the last second to keep our government working.  Such proud warriors, putting their heads into the mouth of the lion to save our great nation the Republicans trying to defend us from such horrors as Sesame Street and Car Talk.  But don’t worry citizens, the republicans haven’t lost, they’ve just staged their forces for the 2012 budget fight and don’t worry, before they are done they will stop middle-class and poor women from getting low-cost health services.  And don’t even mention Obama Care, good God the very mention of the term could summon the devil and end the Mayan calendar, what was that, oops, apparently my typing it did the calendar thing, sorry.

http://examiner.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20324:federal-shutdown-avoided-2012-budget-fight-looms-&catid=35:ap-news&Itemid=56

Finally in ring three, the center ring we have the upcoming 2012 presidential race.  Yes folks as expected President Obama has filed for re-election and we certainly have our fair share of potential challengers.  But had I told you two months ago that there would be one candidate getting the most press for their outlandish ideas, and it wouldn’t be Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich or Michelle Bachman would you have believed me?  No, my friends the monkey in the center ring with his fancy hairdo is none other than building mogul, I mean bankrupt, I mean Casino mogul, I mean bankrupt, I mean reality TV star, Donald Trump, the next President of the United States of America.  Wow what a circus that would be.

Closing Sesame Street to make room for Limbaugh’s fat ass!

 Now I know what my conservative friends are going to jump on, hey, Limbaugh is on the radio and Sesame Street is on TV.   Yes, I know this, but I have to wonder if the Republicans would be going after Sesame Street if the show was full of little white kids who didn’t recycle or try and learn about different cultures and instead went out shooting in Alaska.  Maybe the real issue with PBS is that shows like NOVA talk about actual science and dare to discuss the concept of evolution.   Or maybe that PBS has actually dared in the past to show foreign TV like Doctor Who or Monty Python.  And to I have to say anything other than Masterpiece Theater?  

I know the argument on the other side, TV shouldn’t be subsidized, the problem is if we don’t subsidize TV, apparently we end up with the Kardashians, rich wives TV, Jersey Shore and bullshit science shows that are more entertainment than science.  Hell we should support PBS for no other reason than the fact that  it is Snooki free. 

When I was younger there were two multi-part shows that had a major impact on me.  The first was Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, it was awe inspiring, an amazing series that brought the universe into my living room and did so with accurate and fascinating science.  The other was Ken Burn’s Civil War, using pictures, letters and interviews with history legends like Shelby Foote the show gave an in depth history lesson to the causes and actions of the civil war.  There were no re-enactments, no blood, no lurid sex scenes so let’s face it; it would have never been green lit for commercial TV.  The idea that we can’t subsidize this sort of television, when we subsidize the oil industry is just criminal.

Are we selling out Hispanic Americans in Arizona for Campaign Contributions?

Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.  This is the first line of a story from National Public Radio that I heard last week.  The story that followed completely pissed me off, it didn’t surprise me in any way but just added to my growing negative opinion of our government.  Apparently, prison corporations working through their lobbyists, and a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and even the name sounds sinister.  Legislative exchange, so legislation in exchange for what, well money of course, in the form of business dealings sure but money none-the-less.  So effectively, prison corporations in conjunction with ALEC met together in a hotel room in Washington, DC and came up with the verbiage for the Arizona Immigration Law that would put lots of illegal immigrants in prison for a very profitable government per diem for the illegals incarcerated.   Which works out for the Corrections Corporation of America since they foresee a significant portion of their future revenues coming from immigration enforcement and customs.

So the law was passed in Arizona and who cares where it was written, I mean it was objectively passed by the legal representatives of the state, right?  It was a popular bill once introduced, 36 co-sponsors immediately jumped on the bill, unheard of in the Arizona Legislature.  Then the bill went to the governor who I am sure carefully considered the bill and then objectively decided to sign it.  Well, maybe not so objectively, all 36 sponsors had received campaign contributions from the prison lobby and two of Governor Jan Brewer’s top aides are both former prison lobbyists.

So in essence, a bill that has been reviled around the nation, that puts a presumption of guilt on any Hispanic looking individual in the state of Arizona, is vindicated for being motivated by racism.  Worse than that, it is motivated by greed and the obsession of being re-elected to the point of selling your honor.  Now I think we all understand there is a racist element to the bill as well, so Hispanic American’s in Arizona are getting screwed due to racism and greed.  What the hell is happening to this country?  The link to the NPR story is below:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741

Has Juan Williams fallen prey to Politically Correct America?

Wow do I hate to agree with Fox News and especially Bill O’Reilly the giant wind bag.  But I have to admit that I think NPR over reacted in firing Juan Williams for the comments he made.  I hear a lot of comparisons to CNN firing Rick Sanchez but I think there is a very big difference between the two events.  In the case of Rick Sanchez, he lit into a tirade about how another entertainer, Jon Stewart, was a bigot and then went on to suggest that all media was controlled by the Jews a very old and tired clichéd conspiracy theory.  Sanchez was attacking an individual and specifically calling him a bigot, not cool.

In Williams’ case Juan Williams admitted a thought that goes through most of our heads and probably even the heads of fellow Muslims.  Because the terrorists on 9/11 were Muslim, and because we have now painted the image of the boogey man in our society in the image of Osama Bin Laden seeing someone wearing Arabic clothing get on a plane makes everyone nervous.  Now, do any of us get up and run off the plane, of course not.  Why not?  Because deep down we all know that logically someone dressed like that draws extra attention in security and that the 9/11 terrorists did their best to blend in, as would any future terrorist.

Now, was what Juan Williams did smart?  Apparently not, he lost his job, and in a society where we are overly sensitive to issues related to the Islamic faith speaking that open and honestly was highly risky.  However that does not make what happened right.  In my opinion he should have been censured or suspended but being fired doesn’t seem to be an appropriate response.

America is just too damn sensitive these days, I would be very much in favor of firing Williams if he’d said half of the bigoted things Bill O’Reilly says.  So in the end, Juan Williams will end up full-time at Fox News where he can be completely bigoted and not worry about it.  In the end this just adds to the giant circus that is our current media.

So friends my question to you tonight is this, with a completely screwed up political process and a completely screwed up and biased media, how do the people of this country find out the truth about what’s going on?  Right now all we have to listen to is overly conservative biased, overly liberally biased or tabloid gossip news. 

I hate to leave a piece like this without any suggestions of solutions so I’ll tell you what I do to try an keep updated on what’s truly happening.  I read the NY TIMES, the Christian Science Monitor and look at the BBC News website.  Although the NY TIMES certainly is on the liberal side the information is generally good.  The Christian Science Monitor is a fantastic newspaper and the BBC is a great place to see what’s happening in America, the way other people see us.

The link below will take you to the details of the Juan Williams story:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/22/national/main6983495.shtml